Cambridge Hearing Group, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
ENT Department, 156705James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, UK.
Trends Hear. 2022 Jan-Dec;26:23312165221076940. doi: 10.1177/23312165221076940.
It is traditionally believed that the effects of exposure to noise cease once the exposure itself has ceased. If this is the case, exposure to noise relatively early in life, for example during military service, should not affect the subsequent progression of hearing loss. However, recent data from studies using animals suggest that noise exposure can accelerate the subsequent progression of hearing loss. This paper presents new longitudinal data obtained from 29 former male military personnel. Audiograms obtained at the end of military service were compared with those obtained at least five years later. Rates of change of hearing threshold level (HTL) in dB/year were compared with those expected from ISO7029 (2017) for men at the 50 percentile. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that noise exposure during military service accelerates the progression of hearing loss for frequencies where the hearing loss is absent or mild at the end of military service, by about 1.7 dB/year on average for frequencies from 3 to 8 kHz, but has no effect on or slows the progression of hearing loss for frequencies where the hearing loss exceeds about 50 dB. Acceleration appears to occur over a wide frequency range, including 1 kHz. There remains a need for further longitudinal studies using larger sample sizes. Longitudinal studies are also needed to establish whether exposure to other types of sounds, for example at rock concerts or from work in heavy industries, affects the subsequent progression of hearing loss.
传统观点认为，一旦噪声暴露停止，其影响也会随之停止。如果情况确实如此，那么在相对较早的生命阶段（例如在兵役期间）接触噪声，不应影响随后听力损失的进展。然而，最近使用动物进行的研究数据表明，噪声暴露可能会加速随后听力损失的进展。本文介绍了从 29 名前男性军人那里获得的新纵向数据。将兵役结束时获得的听力图与至少五年后获得的听力图进行了比较。将每年听力阈值水平（HTL）的变化率与 ISO7029（2017 年）中 50%百分位男性的预期值进行了比较。结果与假设一致，即在兵役期间接触噪声会加速听力损失的进展，对于兵役结束时听力损失不存在或轻微的频率，平均每个频率约为 3 至 8kHz 的听力损失增加 1.7dB/年，但对听力损失超过约 50dB 的频率的听力损失没有影响或减缓其进展。这种加速似乎发生在很宽的频率范围内，包括 1kHz。仍需要使用更大的样本量进行进一步的纵向研究。还需要进行纵向研究，以确定接触其他类型的声音（例如在摇滚音乐会上或重工业工作中接触声音）是否会影响随后听力损失的进展。
